In front of him was a tall slender woman draped in a black high collar sheer dress with a fitted bodice and a full skirt with an azure ombre effect. Through the hanging sleeve, one could see azure cracks like that of dry clay on her slender hand.
Similar cracks spread on the right side of her cheek and neck but they didn't negatively impact her beauty. Such a peculiar condition wasn't some sort of weird birthmark but something that happened to her as a consequence of the vicious attacks at the borderlines of the continent of Odessa.
Her pack bore the brunt of the witches' frontier and on one such invasion, she was poisoned with a rare type of wolfbane known as ferox. She was left for dead but she somehow survived. It was for this reason she had a peculiar appearance unique to only her on the entire continent.
She had an oval-shaped face, a soft petite nose, and gorgeous phoenix eyes that seemed to draw one's soul out of their body if they stared into them for a minute longer. When she turned to look at her son her lustrous hair spun gracefully dazzling the women tending to her.
"Lowell..... you truly know how to make me worry don't you," she said her words that of reprimand but the smile on her face was that of a mother doting on her cub.
One of the women attending to Lilith lightly brushed the curls in her hair that was half platinum grey and half black on the left side. This was also an unfortunate side effect of the wolfbane streaming in her blood. She had learned to live with it and deal with the occasional blackouts that came with it.
Lowell took a step forward and smiled warmly. "Mother looks so beautiful..... I just went beyond the boundary to get you a wedding gift." As he said this, his voice became quieter and quieter. He knew if his father found out that he went past the protective circle of the city, which he most certainly will, he would get into big trouble. But he had nothing to give his mother on her wedding day that wasn't gifted by them.
He knew his mother loved ghost orchids which were extremely rare and only found on Circe, one of the continents belonging to the witches. Hence after months of struggling, he finally attained a seedling from a cross-continent merchant who was one of the few allowed to freely sail among the different continents for trade.
After attaining the almost withered seedling he had to do whatever it takes to cultivate it. This particular flower was very high maintenance. It needed spring water and high humidity. Its conditions for growth were so extreme that on the entire continent there were only two places he knew could grow this plant.
One such place was the sacred springs in the palace with the purest water seeping out of an infinitely flowing fountain. But since this was his parent's territory they would soon find out thus he could only go for a second option.
Option B would be a much smaller fountain like the one in the palace but in a remote open roof cavern beyond their territory. Every two days he could only sneak out and take care of it but who would have thought uncle Vega would catch him red-handed.
A little anxious Lowell took out the beautiful ghost orchid and handed it to her. When Lilith saw it her face beamed with joy. She had long known her little cub had been up to something but she didn't want to inquire further as he deserved to have a little privacy. As long as he wasn't in trouble she normally wouldn't interfere.
But this..... this was unexpected. "I love it.... thank you," she said as she pulled him into an embrace. It seemed like she had gone through grievous tortures and fought plenty of battles just for this precious moment.
While the mother and son were showing affection with their foreheads pressed together loud growls were heard coming from the field of the arena. Curious Lowell went to take a look and below were seven alphas looking up to the open platform above.
These were the seven alphas of several packs under the werewolf king. It seemed they were in dispute with each other but this was undoubtedly the wrong time and place to start a bloody fight. It was meant to be a celebration but it was also a rare moment to have several alphas gathered together in one place hence which was a recipe for disaster.
"What are they doing?" asked Lowell his face slightly panicked. For the first time in his life, an inexplicable feeling of fragility overwhelmed him. He knew someday he would have to take his father's place but he feared he would never be strong enough to beat these alphas when they come to challenge his position. Lowell tried to hide this feeling that he was extremely ashamed of but he couldn't hide it from Lilith.
With the wave of her hand, she sent everyone off including Vega who was a little anxious about Aperius losing his shit on his wedding day. That's right, he wasn't worried that Aperius would lose if challenged but that he would fight unrestrainedly and take things too far.
While Vega was combing through ten tips to tame one's temper to find a suitable one to calm Aperius down, the culprit showed himself atop a platform, his top half shirtless exposing deep scars on his brawny chest.
His tall stature attracted the attention of the audience below him. Standing atop that platform he was like a god walking among mortals in both appearance and aura emanating from him. A glint of blood thirst flashed in his sharp eyes as he lowered his body into a half-kneeling position.
His fist slammed down on the platform causing it to crumble with the large pieces raining down on the alphas below.
The agitated alphas who had transformed into their full wolf forms took a few steps backward as they gazed up to the platform.
The reason why they could go through advanced shapeshifting into this powerful full wolf form wasn't because they had found a balance between their humanity and inner werewolf nature, but it was because of the carved pieces of Lycaon's eye they possessed on their person be it as a pendant, bracelet, or tassel.
How they wore it wasn't important it was what it does that shifted the scale in the werewolves' favor after having suffered countless invasions.